GIVING, SELFISHNESS IN

During a sermon, the country preacher said to his congregation, “Now let the church walk.” Deacon Jones said, “Amen, let it walk.”

“Let the church run,” said the preacher. “Let it run,” echoed Deacon Jones.

“Let it fly,” said the preacher. “Amen, brother, let the church fly,” said Deacon Jones.

“Now it’s going to take money to let it fly, brother,” said the preacher. “Let it walk,” said Deacon Jones. “Let it walk.”563

The pastor of a large and wealthy church in Texas broke out in laughter in the middle of singing a hymn during the Sunday-morning service. After the service was over, his wife asked what could have caused him to do such a thing. “Well,” he said, “I couldn’t help it. We were singing ‘Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee,’ and I noticed the words of the third verse: ‘Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold.’ It suddenly struck me, with all the millionaires sitting in the congregation, what if God would answer that prayer right then? Some of them would be very upset and angry with him. I’ve been encouraging them to give their silver and gold for a long time, but they’ve not been willing. But now they’re singing, ‘Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold.’ ”564

Martin Marty, in his Context newsletter, quoted Yale professor-preacher Halford Luccock: “You remember that among the Franks, whole armies were sometimes given baptism at one stroke, and many warriors went into the water with their right hands held high, so that they did not get wet. Then they could say, ‘This hand has never been baptized,’ and they could swing their battle axes just as freely as ever. The modern counterpart of that partial baptism is seen in many people who have been baptized, all except their pocketbooks. They held these high out of the water.”565